1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanical devices for dispensing a limited quantity of small objects, and more specifically pill dispensers.
2. Prior Art
Pill and tablet dispensers in the past have primarily been oriented toward dispensing controlled portions of a single item, such as vitamin pills or medication tablets. However, with the rise in the number of vitamin and health pills and tablets available in the market, pill dispensers dedicated to a single type of tablet or pill create as much clutter and confusion as the original containers. It is desirable, therefore, to have a neat, attractive, and functional pill dispenser that can fit on a user's table top or counter, take up a minimum of space, and yet provide controlled dispensing of a multitude of different types of pills and tablets.
Multi-compartmented dispensers have previously been proposed for a variety of products. However, many of these previous designs are relatively expensive to manufacture. It is an object of this invention to provide a multi-compartmented pill dispenser which is readily manufactured and is suitable for counter or table top containment of a plurality of pill types.
Another problem with many previous pill dispensers is that children can gain access to the pills contained therein. An unsupervised child might consume pills which would be detrimental to his or her health. Other pill and tablet dispensers in the past have incorporated child-resistant features to make it more difficult for a child to open the container. However, these child-resistant features often make access too difficult for the intended user. It is a further object of this invention to provide a child-resistant locking mechanism for pill and tablet dispensers, which would provide ready access for adults.
Once a container has been opened, it is often difficult to remove a pill or tablet from the container. Various dispenser mechanisms have been devised but these mechanisms have tended to be relatively complicated and expensive to manufacture. Furthermore, these mechanisms are often not readily adapted to multi-compartmented dispensers. It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a pill dispenser in which the pills are easily removed once the child-resistant locking mechanism has been "unlocked".
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention are accomplished by the child-resistant multi-compartmented pill dispenser disclosed herein.